Weekly Roundup: Xbox One X, Respawn & The Death of Miiverse
Hey Epilogue readers, welcome to our first edition of the “Weekly Roundup”, where we’ll give our lukewarm takes on everything that’s happened since the previous edition. The objective for these roundups is to both give you something to carry into the weekend (they will normally be published on Fridays) and to help keep you up to date on the latest industry news. If you have any feedback, please feel free to drop us a comment below of send us an email at EpilogueGames@gmail.com.
The Big News: Microsoft Releases the Xbox One X
Microsoft released their power-stocked console, the Xbox One X, early this week to reportedly excellent sales. The console, which released just under a year after the PS4 Pro (which, coincidentally, released this time a year ago), has been advertised as the “most powerful console ever made.” With the original Xbox One releasing just four years ago, Microsoft isn’t labeling this as a generational jump. Though, experts seem to agree that the console – currently priced at $500 – has every bit of power to justify the hefty price
Still, potential buyers find themselves in an odd spot: the console isn’t releasing with any new games. Microsoft seems to be relying heavily upon third-party and previously released first-party content, like Halo 5, to showcase the console. It’s hard to imagine that Microsoft will be able to change that anytime soon, after recently canceling Fable: Legends and Platinum’s Scalebound. All the same, Phil Spencer has promised that a focus on software is in the Xbox’s future, now that they have the hardware to work from.
The Good News: EA Acquires Respawn
In news that sent the internet into an uproar, EA has acquired Titanfall developer Respawn for north of $400 million dollars. This comes fresh off of their release and shutdown of the well-liked development studio, Visceral. Regardless of how you feel about Electronic Arts, this is undoubtedly exciting news for fans of Titanfall, whose future was in doubt. The announcement comes with the promise of both a Titanfall 3 and Respawn’s untitled Star Wars project.
What is really promising, however, is that EA has incentivized Respawn via strong Metacritic scores rather than sales. This is likely a gesture of good faith from EA, who needs to good press and can’t risk anyone putting out a poor Star Wars video game. All the same, it looks like we’ll be seeing more of Respawn, which is a good thing, because Titanfall has been the posterboy for a consumer friendly model.
The Bad News: Miiverse Gets Shutdown
After five years, Nintendo announced the shutdown of its Wii U online ecosystem, the Miiverse. The Miiverse, a place where users would go online to draw silly comics, share tips and tricks and boast over their accomplishments, saw its dwindling community say goodbye this past Tuesday. Even prolific creator Shigeru Miyamoto bid his farewell to the online service.
Perhaps the most unfortunate part about all of this is that Nintendo has no real system to take its place on the Switch. While the Miiverse was far from perfect, it seemed like the first real recognition of online communication on Nintendo’s part. If nothing else, the shutdown of the Miiverse sends Nintendo back to square one. According to Nintendo, it will begin a paid service at the beginning of 2018 for $20 a year.
